Embodiments of the invention relate to methods and devices for classifying occupants of a vehicle.
Many vehicles include airbags and seatbelt tensioning systems that work together to protect vehicle occupants from experiencing injuries due to collisions.
One way to control airbag deployment is to monitor the weight and position of the seat occupant. Weight information and position information can be used to classify seat occupants into various groups, e.g., adult, child, infant, etc., to control the deployment force of the airbag.
There are many different systems for measuring weight and determining the position of a seat occupant. These systems use sensors placed in various locations within the vehicle to monitor the position and weight of the occupants. For example, a vehicle may include transducers mounted within the seat to measure occupant weight and optical sensors mounted to the dashboard to determine the position of the occupant. Information from the sensors is processed by a processor, such as a computer, and the occupant is classified. Airbag deployment is then controlled based on this classification.